CHAPTER IX

A CROP OF BY-ELECTIONS, MARCH TO MAY, 1907

No sooner had the second Women's Parliament been concluded than Mrs. Pankhurst had hurried off by the night train to take command of the Suffragette forces against the Government at a by-election at Hexham in Northumberland, where the Liberal majority was reduced by more than a thousand votes. This election was scarcely over when it was followed, with scarcely a week's intermission, by no fewer than seven others, at six of which the Suffragettes were to the fore.

From Hexham our militant army was transferred to Stepney and then to Rutland, the smallest English County.

Writing at the beginning of the Rutland contest, the _Daily News_ correspondent said: "Each of the three parties (the third being the Women's Social and Political Union) opened its campaign with meetings in the Rutland Division to-night." Thus recognised from the start as one of the three forces to be reckoned with in the Election, the W. S. P. U. kept its important position right through until the end. In every hamlet and village the women speakers were cordially received and their speeches were listened to with earnest attention and respect. After the meetings, men and women clustered round to ask questions and tell how, before the passing of the 1884 Reform Act which had enfranchised the agricultural labourers, in the days when voters were scarce, widows and daughters whose fathers were dead, had been frequently turned out of their farms, not because they could not pay the rent, but because they could not vote. Even to-day the people said that a woman tenant was sometimes looked upon with disfavour on that account. Though the wages of the agricultural labourers in this district were exceedingly low, there was hardly a single member of the audience who did not buy at least one badge or penny pamphlet, whilst the free leaflets were eagerly seized upon, and labourers would come hurrying across the fields to the roadside in order to secure them.

As the days went by the journeyings of the Suffragettes from meeting place to meeting place throughout the constituency became a sort of triumphal progress. We were cheerily hailed from afar by distant workers amongst the crops and by drivers of passing carts. Men, women and children ran to the cottage doors to see us pass, and everywhere we were greeted with smiles and kindly words.

Only in the towns, at Oakham, the capital, and at Uppingham, did we meet with any opposition, but here most of the working men were deeply anxious that the Liberal should be returned. Rightly or wrongly they believed in the Liberal Party, believed it to be the party of progress and the one that would stand by the poor man. Nevertheless the majority listened courteously to our arguments, and admitting at last that our policy was logical and right for us, although inconvenient to them. Many of the staunchest Liberals were even won over to go all the way with us and to help us to "keep the Liberal out."

But, whilst the majority were thus willing to listen and anxious to understand, there was also a bitterly hostile element which was inflamed by an absolutely unreasoning spirit of party antagonism, and it was well known, and quite openly stated in Oakham, that a certain well-to-do Liberal was paying a gang of youths to shout down the Suffragettes at their nightly meetings in the market place. It is always found by those who take part in political warfare that the roughest and least civilised members of society are invariably opposed to the pioneer and the reformer and usually support the Government in power, to whatever party it may belong, just as they try to "back the winner" in a race. With the additional monetary incentive to create a disturbance, this element soon rendered our market place meetings unpleasantly turbulent, with the result that the local police were kept busier than they had been for a generation, and reinforcements had to be sent in from Leicestershire in order to keep the peace. The tradesman from whom we hired the lorry that we used as a platform, now announced that he dared not let us have it in future because he had been warned, not only that the vehicle itself would be damaged, but that his windows would be broken and his shop looted. Not until we had tried without success every lorry owner in Oakham, did a man, who was storing a waggon for a farmer living many miles outside the constituency, at last come to us and say that, if we would go to the barn in the field where it was kept and fetch it out for ourselves, we might have the use of this waggon on promising to make good any damage that might be done. We agreed to this and were able to hold our meetings right on until the end of the contest, though on the last two nights very little that we said could be heard, owing to the number of horns, bells and rattles that were loudly sounded by our opponents. After these stormy meetings the police and hosts of sympathisers always escorted us home to protect us from the rowdies. Just as we reached our door there was generally a little scuffle with a band of youths who waited there to pelt us with sand and gravel as we passed in. Once inside the house, the rest of the evening was always taken up with interviewing the host of previously unknown callers, who came to ask whether we had arrived home safely, to apologise for the roughs, to express sympathy with "Votes for Women," to buy literature, badges and buttons, or to ask us to inscribe our names in autograph albums. At Uppingham, the second largest town, the hostile element was smaller than at Oakham, but its methods were more dangerous. Whilst Mary Gawthorpe was holding an open-air meeting there one evening, a crowd of noisy youths began to throw up peppermint "bull's eyes" and other hard-boiled sweets. "Sweets to the sweet," said little Mary, smiling, and continued her argument, but a pot-egg, thrown from the crowd behind, struck her on the head and she fell unconscious. She was carried away, but next day appeared again, like a true Suffragette, quite undaunted, and the incident and her plucky spirit, made her the heroine of the Election. Polling took place on June 11th, and instead of the great increase in the Government vote that had been expected the Conservative majority was nearly doubled. The figures were:

J. Gretton (C.) 2,213 W. F. Lyon (L.) 1,362 _____ 851

The figures at the General Election had been:

H. G. Finch (C.) 2,047 Harold Pearson (L.) 1,564 _____ 483

The campaign in Rutland was not yet over, when Mrs. Pankhurst and part of our forces were obliged to go north to Jarrow, where there was a Government majority of nearly three thousand votes to pull down. The Conservatives, the Labour Party, the Irish Nationalists, and, of course, the Liberals themselves had each put a candidate into the field, and every one of this bevy of candidates was "in favour" of Votes for Women.

Whether the majority of these who came in contact with the Suffragettes during these By-Election Campaigns understood the workings of the Party machinery, which controls the Government of our country, well enough to realise that by voting against the Government they would help the Votes for Women cause may perhaps be doubted by some, though the Suffragettes were constantly receiving both written and verbal assurances from electors who declared that their votes had turned upon this question; but that the hearts of the people were stirred by the Suffragettes' appeal is absolutely sure. In the leafy lanes and tiny villages of Rutland great interest and sympathy had been evoked, but in smoky struggling Jarrow, with its coal mines, shipbuilding yards and engineering works, with its dingy slums where overcrowding and infant mortality are, in common with the rest of this district, more rife than in any other part of the country, the message of the Suffragettes came to the overburdened women as a wonderful ray of hope that had burst in upon the squalor of their lives.

On the first night of their arrival in Jarrow, Mrs. Pankhurst and Annie Kenney held the largest open-air meeting that had ever been seen in that town, and the numberless subsequent gatherings, whether for men and women, or for women only, which were held in halls, in open spaces, at work gates, and at the collieries, were, in every case, larger and more orderly than those held by any of the other parties. A systematic canvass was made of the women householders, who numbered more than one thousand, and a Committee of Local Women who had come forward with offers of help sprang almost spontaneously into being.

Three days before the end of the contest it was suggested that a women's procession should march to the various polling booths, in order to remind the men to vote against the nominee of the Government that had refused to allow women to become voters too. The idea was eagerly caught up, banners were quickly made by voluntary helpers, the news was carried throughout the district, and on polling day great crowds of women came flocking to the Mechanics' Hall, where they were to assemble. They came early, but found that a well dressed mob of men and youths, wearing the Liberal Colours, had already gathered to bar the doorway, and the women were literally obliged to fight their way both in and out of their own meeting. As soon as the procession had got fairly out into the main road, however, everything went well, for though at no time did the police put in an appearance, either to keep order or to clear the way for them, the women were protected from obstruction by the sympathy and good will of the populace. As they passed onward, greater and greater numbers joined their ranks until it seemed as though all the women of Jarrow were marching along the road.

The men whom they met coming from the polling booths greeted them with cheers and cries of "We have voted for the women this time. We have kept the Liberal out." They spoke truly, for when the votes were counted, it was found that the Government candidate was third on the list, and that the Liberal vote at the General Election had been reduced by more than half. The figures were:

Pete Curran (Lab.) 4,698 P. Rose Innes (C.) 3,930 Spencer Leigh Hughes (L.) 3,474 J. O'Hanlon (N.) 2,124

The figures at the General Election had been:

Sir C. M. Palmer (L.) 8,047 Pete Curran (Lab.) 5,093

Before the Jarrow election was over came another in the Colne Valley, in Yorkshire, and here again an old Liberal stronghold was wrested from the Government. After the declaration of the poll, Mr. Grayson, the successful candidate, publicly admitted that his return was largely due to the heavily damaging effect of the Suffragettes' attack upon his Liberal opponent. An article[23] on this election headed "Votes for Women, but Fair Play for Liberals," which appeared in the Liberal _Tribune_, condemning the anti-Government by-election policy of the Suffragettes, was an admission of the great influence which they had been able to exercise at this and other recent by-elections.

A more gracious tribute to the electioneering capabilities of the Suffragettes by the special correspondent of the _Morning Post_ appeared in that paper on August 1st, 1909, during the North West Staffordshire by-election.

The next Election was at Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk. Here the Liberal vote was greatly reduced, and that of the Conservative more than doubled. The figures were:

The Hon. W. Guinness (U.) 1,631 W. B. Yates (L.) 741 _____ Unionist majority 890

The figures at the General Election had been:

Capt. F. W. Harvey (U.) 1,481 W. B. Yates (L.) 1,047 _____ Unionist Majority 434

When, after the declaration of the poll, the successful candidate, the Hon. W. Guinness, appeared at the window of the Angel Hotel to thank his supporters and to speak to the people in the customary way, he asked, "What has been the cause of this great and glorious victory?" He was interrupted by cries of "Votes for Women!" and by "Three cheers for the Suffragettes!" vigorously given from the assembled crowd. "No doubt the ladies had something to do with it," he was constrained to agree.

During this first year of by-election work since the anti-Government campaign had been started at Eye and Cockermouth in 1906, the Suffragette forces had grown very largely, and instead of the one or two workers who had gone to the first contests there were now upwards of thirty regular by-election campaigners, who could always be relied upon, at headquarters. During each contest from sixteen to twenty meetings were held by the union each day. At all these gatherings collections were taken and admission was charged for many of the election meetings held in halls, though both practices were unexampled at Election times. A fine answer to the Liberal cry that they were fighting with "Tory Gold," and a striking proof of the Suffragette speakers' popularity with the audiences were thus provided. At every contest in which the Suffragettes had fought hitherto, there had been a fall in the Government vote, which had been reduced at Cockermouth by 1,446; at Huddersfield by 540; in North West Derbyshire by 1,021; in South Aberdeen by 3,001; at Hexham by 231; at Stepney by 503; at Rutland by 202; at Jarrow by 4,573; at Colne Valley by 2,204; in North West Staffordshire by 271, and at Bury St. Edmunds by 306; making in all a total loss of votes to the Government of 13,300. In spite of the denials of Party wire-pullers a part of this loss was certainly due to the Suffragettes.

At some of the later election contests, beginning at Hexham, a new complication had been introduced. During all the years of its existence the old non-militant National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies had held entirely aloof from all election warfare but, seeing that the Suffragettes during the first year of their anti-Government by-election campaigning had rapidly grown not only in surface popularity but in real influence with the electorate, the older Suffragists now came to the conclusion that they, too, must adopt a by-election policy. Unfortunately, however, the older Suffragists had not the courage to make common cause with the Suffragettes who had raised the question of Women's Suffrage from the position of a stale, old-fashioned joke to that of a living, moving force in practical politics. They decided, instead, not to oppose the Government, but to support any Parliamentary candidate who should declare himself to be favourable to Woman Suffrage. If, as generally happened nowadays, all the candidates should claim to be favourable, the N. U. S. S. should either support the most favourable, or remain neutral. In the event of no candidate being favourable, a special Women's Suffrage candidate might be run.

Thus, rather than boldly oppose a Government that had only too clearly shown that it would never give women the vote until it was forced to do so, these old-fashioned Suffragists preferred to ignore entirely the dominating principle of the politics of their own time, namely, government by party. They preferred to go on working for the return of a few more of the Private Members of Parliament who, though they already formed a majority of more than two-thirds of the House of Commons, had themselves, for the hundredth time, been proved to be incapable of doing anything to prevent the wrecking of a Women's Suffrage Bill, when, in that very March in which this futile election policy was decided upon, Mr. Dickinson's Bill had been "talked out."

It is always more difficult to carry out a weak policy than a strong one, and the adoption of this particular policy not only failed to advance the Suffrage cause, but also failed in one object for which it primarily was designed, namely, to prevent dissension in the ranks of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies itself. Many members at once seceded and joined the Women's Social and Political Union, and many of those who did not actually resign their membership of the old society now threw all their energy into working for the younger, more active and courageous body. On the other hand, there were still those Liberal women who cared more for party than for principle to be reckoned with, and one of these, Lady Carlisle, resigned the Vice Presidentship of the N. U. W. S. S., which she had accepted but a few days before the new by-election policy had been announced, because, in her party-ridden opinion, to oppose a Liberal candidate who was opposed to their enfranchisement, seemed too "drastic" and "extreme" a course for women to adopt.

When the by-election policy of the N. U. W. S. S. came to be put into practice its unworkable character was immediately demonstrated. The candidates at Hexham were interviewed, with the result that the Unionist, Colonel Bates, returned what was considered to be a favourable answer, whilst the reply of Mr. R. D. Holt, the Liberal, was said to be unsatisfactory. The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies was therefore, according to the newly framed policy, obliged to support the Conservative candidate, but, when they proceeded to do so, many of the Liberal members of the organisation objected, and some even went so far as to work for the Liberal candidate in opposition to their Secretary, Miss Edith Palliser, and the rest of the Society. To make matters even more embarrassing for those who were endeavouring to carry out the policy the Liberal candidate now veered round a point or two--as candidates so often will--and stated that he had always been in favour of women's enfranchisement and that his only fear was that women were not asking for their votes upon a sufficiently democratic basis. He was therefore proclaimed by his supporters to be a staunch and devoted friend of the Women's Suffrage Cause.

Meanwhile the Suffragettes foresaw very clearly that this new policy which would sometimes cause the Suffragists to support the Government candidate whom they themselves were strenuously working against would confuse the electors and increase the difficulty of explaining the anti-Government policy, and, though the anti-Government policy was a very simple one, even simple things are difficult to explain when hosts of people are striving to misrepresent them.

In May, the National Union of Suffrage Societies decided to run a Parliamentary candidate of their own, at a by-election in Wimbledon, and had chosen as their nominee a well known Liberal, the Hon. Bertrand Russell. The crushing defeat which resulted has unfortunately been quoted as a proof that the majority of the Parliamentary voters in that constituency were opposed to the principle of women's enfranchisement, but an impartial examination into the facts shows clearly that they do not in any way justify this conclusion.

The Wimbledon seat had always been held by the Conservatives, and their majority at the General Election, in spite of the then great Liberal revival, had numbered more than 2,000 votes. Now, with the well known and typical old Conservative, Mr. Henry Chaplin, in the field, the Liberal Party considered it wisest not to fight. Therefore, but for the intervention of the National Union of Suffrage Societies, who opposed him because of his anti-Suffragist views, Mr. Chaplin would have been returned without a contest. Opinions may reasonably be divided as to whether the game of running Parliamentary candidates would possibly be worth the candle to a Women's Suffrage Society, but everyone will surely agree that if Suffrage candidates were to be run at all, the chief object of the Suffragists ought to have been to efface as far as possible all other points of political difference between the rival candidates in order that upon the question of Votes for Women, and upon that question alone, the electors might have decided how to vote. To ensure that the single issue should predominate, it might have been well to choose as the Suffragist nominee a candidate whose views upon general political questions were, either similar to those of his anti-Suffrage opponent, or altogether colourless and obscure. In any case it was essential that the Suffragist candidate should be willing to subordinate all his other political opinions and to concentrate his attention absolutely upon the question of Votes for Women. In this Election, however, though it was well known that Liberalism was unpopular, the Suffragists chose to represent them a strong Liberal who was determined to make the election contest an opportunity for propagating his Liberal principles. That Mr. Bertrand Russell cared very much more for Liberalism than he did for Women's Votes was at once apparent. With the news that he had consented to stand as the Suffrage candidate came the announcement that he would not in any circumstances have agreed to do so had an official Liberal been nominated, and he showed clearly that he had no intention of standing out against the wishes of his party leaders in order to press forward the Women's Cause. Right from the outset the record of the Liberal Government, and the general principles of Liberalism were the points constantly put before the electors, and it was upon these points that the Election was really fought. Mr. Russell's Election Address, which was in fact the manifesto of the Suffragists, advocated Free Trade, the Taxation of Land Values and other questions quite unconnected with their cause. In his last message to the electors he said:

I ask for the Liberal vote because I am a Liberal through and through. I am just as much a Liberal as dozens of the Ministerialists in the House of Commons, who are as keen as ever I can be upon the Women's Suffrage question. To those who waver about giving me their vote because they have doubts on the women's question, I would ask, "Do you prefer Mr. Chaplin, the protectionist and crusted Tory, to one who is at least a Free Trader and Progressive?" Such persons should remember that every vote not given to me is given to my opponent!

The Conservatives eagerly seized the opportunity of fighting Mr. Russell on the ground of his Liberalism and scouted the idea of his being considered a Women's Suffrage candidate. At the same time the Liberals dissociated themselves from his candidature. It was no great matter for surprise, therefore, that Mr. Russell was defeated by more than 6,000 votes. The figures were:

H. Chaplin (U.) 10,263 B. Russell (L.) 3,299 ______ 6,964

The figures at the General Election had been:

C. E. Hambro (U.) 9,523 Mr. Lane Fox Pitt (L.) 7,409 _____ 2,114

It is interesting to note that in the six elections which had taken place since 1885 the Liberals had only thought it worth their while to contest the seat on three occasions, and on one of these the Liberal vote had fallen below that recorded for Mr. Bertrand Russell.

Perhaps the most unfortunate feature of the contest was that those of the Suffragist women who genuinely wished to further the interests of the women's cause without respect to party, instead of taking command of the situation, leading their candidate aright, and showing that they were determined that Woman Suffrage should be the only feature of the election, allowed the contest to be dominated by Mr. Russell and his Liberal opinions. Herein lay the great point of difference between the Suffragists and the Suffragettes. The Suffragists were ever prone to look upon their cause as a side issue and to apologise for any impatient attempt to press it to the front. The Suffragettes, on the other hand, were ready to stake their all upon it and constantly proclaimed it to be the highest and greatest in the world.

FOOTNOTES:

[23] If Mr. Stanley is the saint and Mr. Twyford the hero, the Suffragettes are the politicians of the Election.... I confess that until I had seen the Suffragette Ironsides at work I thought the Tariff Reform Ruperts unsurpassed. The organization of the Suffragettes is as good as their political insight. They adopt the "fan" formation. They usually have three or four local centres in a scattered constituency. The members of each group in each centre live together irrespective of class differences. It is a pleasure to see the fan opened, controlled and set by the controlling hand at the centre. Early in the morning while men are sleeping or at the Committee Rooms a group of women will walk up the street of their centre.... At the crossroads of each centre each single group becomes a fan itself. Each member takes a different road. Chalk in hand, each woman whilst, going to one meeting, makes the announcement of another. The men usually hunt in couples. They do not care to face these hostile audiences single-handed, but each of these women, as often as not, tackles an audience alone. If combined hammering is necessary the central hand sends to the rescue. Their staying power, judging them by the standard of men, is extraordinary. By taking afternoon as well as evening meetings they have worked twice as hard as the men. They are up earlier, they retire just as late. Women against men, they are better speakers, more logical, better informed, better phrased, with a surer insight for the telling argument.